Española Island
Today we woke up in Gardner Bay, one of the most gorgeous sites in the Galápagos. Gardner is a bay with nice talcum powder sand, and lots of sea lions. We had breakfast and Sofia, our expedition leader, gave a snorkeling and kayak safety briefing.
We started the day with kayaking, then snorkeling and finally the glass-bottom activities. Snorkeling was a blast; we had an encounter with sea lions and played endlessly with them. Jack, one of our guests who brought all his grandchildren, said that swimming with sea lions was the best thing he’s ever done.
We came back on board and headed toward the beach at Gardner Bay so we could enjoy this magical place. It was a relaxing morning, with one unexpected event: Juan Carlos Rosillo, one of our deckhands, was at the beach helping with the incoming Zodiacs, when a Hood mockingbird landed on his head. I don’t know what the bird was thinking but I thought for a minute that the bird found a perfect place to build a nest, ha ha, ha.
At mid-day, we all returned on board the National Geographic Endeavour, had a good shower and then a well-deserved lunch while the ship repositioned to Punta Suarez, our next destination. At 3:00 p.m. we disembarked at Punta Suarez, one of the most interesting visitor sites.
Here we saw marine iguanas and lava lizards, both endemic and unique to this island. We walked across the trail and found that the waved albatrosses were there. This is the largest seabird in Galápagos and they were very active today. They were flying along the cliff and performing the beautiful, meticulous courtship ritual. We also found a Galápagos hawk nesting on a high rock.
People were eager to see the blue-footed boobies and we found them also in full courtship. Gosh! There was so much to see, including some Nazca boobies and a blowhole along the coast. After a wonderful afternoon, we came back on board, had a good shower and a cocktail.
What a day in paradise; tomorrow will be another day. Viva la evolución!
